Category Archives: tv

Monday morning started early with a visit to Amsterdam. As you can see it was rather wet. Where is my snow?! ❆ We finally bought a frame! I got this poster at the Modern Museum in Malmö for my 22nd birthday. ❆ Passing Rotterdam on our way to my family in Zeeland. ❆ Owls are cute! This one has a place on our mantelpiece.

Nothing better than a crisp new shirt you found in sale.

On New Year’s Eve we had a little photoshoot with my new camera, a passe partout and our friend/sister. It was really really fun and we ended up with a lot of great pictures! (I only included our picture because I don’t know if the others would like to be on the internet ;))

A very pretty sky. ❆ A picture I took at the beach. ❆ A really healthy omelette. Balances out all of the Big Macs I’ve been eating lately… whoops #sorrynotsorry ❆ STUDYTIME. Not cool. Also: literally five minutes after this picture was taken I knocked over my coffee. Bye bye clean table cloth (which was actually an old curtain, so who cares right).

The past week has been a bit boring actually! Of course I could’ve been smarter and plan a bit better, but instead I had to work like crazy this week to be able to meet my deadlines. Who sets those things RIGHT AFTER Christmas break in the first place…?! That’s just bad manners! Ahem. Anyway, because of said deadlines I was stuck to my laptop these past few days, typing away and staring at the ceiling in despair and typing again and then, when sunday came, I sent it in, right on the twelve o’clock dot (PM that is). And that’s about as exciting as my week would get.

At the moment, as we speak, I should actually be doing work for my other deadline this week. It’s master thesis time and on thursday we have to present our idea to a small panel of other students (again, my life is so exciting). The good news is: I have determined a subject. The bad news is: I still haven’t been able to formulate a real ~question~ from which to conduct my research (pooh, had a bit of difficulty with translating the term there, but let’s just leave it at that). It’s the most difficult part I think! Hope it will come to me when reading up about it.

Of course, me being inside and stuck behind my laptop for most of the time, also means a lot of procrastinating has been done. Here are some things I found and like to share:

Probably my life saver this week: the Lord of the Rings soundtrack. I know, I know, super geeky and whatevs, but if it’s good enough for Orlando Bloom, then it’s good enough for me (j/k, Lord of the Rings is awesome, just like Orli’s butt). Something about that music even makes essay writing an EPIC event (just as epic like… well, no, I’m not going to make that joke). ♥ THE NEW VERONICA MARS FILM IS ALMOST HERE!!! Watch the trailer over here. ♥ Just a few more nights of sleep and then there will also be a new episode of GIRLS! I’m so excited for the new season. Here’s a teaser. ♥ It’s a bit difficult to read a lot when you’ve been studying all day, but I do manage to read 1 or 2 chapters of Hilary Clinton’s book every day without falling asleep. I hope she will publish a book about her time as a Secretary of State soon! But maybe she’s too busy with running for president..? ;) ♥ I really like that Kim has been blogging a lot more lately! Go check that out if you want! :) ♥

Music, mix the bourgoise and the rebelllll, yeahhh ♫

I have been on a real David Bowie binge the past few days. This is probably one of my favourite songs. Did you know that the song is about two lovers who are separated by the Berlin Wall? Bowie wrote it in 1977 during his stay in West-Berlin.

GIRLS: some call it the new Sex and The City, others find it waaaay too explicit, some think it’s racist (because of the lack of colour in casting) and others just find it downright outrageous. Let’s just say this series is getting a lot of talk. And sure, some of it is probably true. It’s about four white women who live in NYC and you see a lot of tits. But it’s also so much more. Every time I watch an episode of GIRLS, I can’t get over the fact how smart and funny it actually is. It’s not for everyone (I would even understand it if you would tell me you hated it), but if you want to discover something new and original, this is it! Let me introduce you.

Hannah

This is Hannah, the main character and incarnation of the “white girl problems” concept, played by actress, writer and feminist Lena Dunham (Lena is also co-writer and producer of GIRLS, together with Judd Apatow). She talks A LOT about herself, is very insecure and is constantly looking for confirmation from others. In the pilot episode, Hannah gets a rude awakening from her parents; they tell her that they are no longer going to support her financially. Shit! Do they not understand how lucky they are? She could be a drug-addict! Instead she just needs some time to finish up her book and make her unpaid internship evolve in a paid job. And yes, she needs 1200 bucks a month, she lives in New York City, what’s weird about that? All of her friends get help from their parents! But her parents are very firm: Hannah graduated two years ago, it’s time for her to stand on her own two feet. Luckily she’s not alone and has friends who not only support her but also make sure the bumpy ride into adulthood is fun one.

Jessa

Jessa is the one you secretly want to be (the hair, the wardrobe, the accent, her laissez-faire “woman of the world”- attitude, it’s all so effortless), but at the same time you can’t quite grasp. She’s constantly looking for something or someone else and doesn’t seem to care about what others think of her. She’s so cool, she doesn’t even have facebook. Or at least, that’s the way she tries to portray herself to the outside world. I bet that, deep inside her, just like everybody else, she secretly wants to find security and discover her place in the world. Although you sometimes get the feeling she has already given up on that. In the mean time she is the girl who comes and goes as many times as she pleases. Sometimes quite literately.

Shoshanna

Well, what to say about Shoshanna? I sometimes feel that Shoshanna is a bit too cray cray to be a REAL person, but on the other hand… She watches a lot of reality-tv (or tv in general, the poster of the four ladies from Sex and The City in her room is a nice nod to that addiction), talks in hilarious clichés and has crazy hairstyles. At the beginning of the series she’s a (GASP!) 21 year old virgin, can you imagine?! Everybody tells her it’s ok, but popular culture has obviously told her otherwise. She lives with Jessa though (who is her cousin), so with such a sexual creature around the house, the sex-part is bound to work out. Spoiler alert: it does! And that’s just the beginning of all the fun.

Marnie

The most annoying character is without a doubt Marnie. Sure, you can feel for her and you can relate to her to a certain extent, but never have I ever seen a more selfish person than Marnie. She would be the side of myself I would desperately be trying to hide. She is insecure, a bit of a control freak, self-centred, feels entitled to happiness and thinks of herself as the pretty girl who can get away with anything. She is Hannah’s best friend and their friendship is a lot about shouting at each other about how selfish and self-centred they think the other one is. Well Hannah, you can be self-centred as well, but I think I’m on your side with this one. Marnie has some cute sides to her, but sometimes they are hard to find.

Are there any boys, you ask? YES, of course there are BOYS. And they are kinda cute:

If you’re still not convinced, here are three more reasons to watch GIRLS:

. There are no perfect people in Girls. Everybody has some issue or another and therefore it feels very honest and real. No perfect outfits, no limitless credit cards, no waking up with a full face of make-up or having sex with a bra on (seriously, who does that?!) or a sheet conveniently covering up the (god forbid!) NUDE parts. Instead we see real people, non-perfect people, with real problems and issues. And it’s totally ok.

. Hannah sets an example for women in not giving a rats ass about her waistline or not having a thigh gap. People joke about the amount of nakedness in GIRLS and especially the many nude scenes Lena plays, but I think she’s awesome for showing off how comfortable she is with her body.

My sister painted her bedroom last week in this pretty blue colour. Makes me think of Sweden… ▲ 50 kronor! ▲ My mother in-law got me these pretty tullips. Well, they WERE pretty, but on this picture: not so much anymore. ▲ My sister came by to do my make-up, just for fun! (her make-up bag and it’s contents are considerably larger than mine).

My boyfriend had his birthday this week (happy birthday baby!) and I baked apple pie. As a present I got him a flying lesson. Fortunately he really liked it! We still have to book it, but we are waiting for the weather to get better. ▲ We went to Amsterdam to pick up my diploma, yay! It took me forever (boring story) but now I finally got it. ▲ I could not decide if I liked the leather vest when I was in the store, but I’m glad I bought it. ▲ When everyone was complaining about the snow and all the discomfort they were experiencing because of it, I took this picture to show that we had beautiful weather. Next morning I woke up and what did I see? SNOW. Karma? (yes of course my karma can make it snow)

Pizza! Home made is the best! And super easy as well. Just add some flower, an egg and water (or olive oil) together for the dough and use whatever you want for toppings. Delicious and also very healthy (although, if you want, you can probably make this very unhealthy with various toppings like A LOT of cheese, hehe…). ▲ A picture of me with my bike when I was in Sweden. We (the international students) all had such crappy bikes, it was hilarious! I don’t think we got home from a party in the middle of the night without someone’s bike breaking down. Mine was quite alright though. And it had a cute basket, so I was happy ;) ▲ My boyfriend got me this watch as a graduation present. I can’t stop staring at it! So sweet of him. ▲ Like I said… SNOW!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ MORE STUFF ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Got hooked on Sherlock and found myself liking this cute facebook picture. Can’t wait for season 3. ▲ Wow, I wrote about Veronica Mars last week and now it turns out there is going to be a movie after all. I must be psychic or something (a very logical explanation I think). I’m SO EXCITED!!! ▲ You MUST watch something by Derren Brown. I had never heard of him until a good friend of mine introduced me and now I’ve seen every episode he’s ever made… oops. My favorite episodes: Apocalypse, The Secret of Luck, Svengali (a theatre show) and well, I almost like everything he’s made. The Secret of Luck is up on youtube, here is a link. It’s a good one to start of with! I seriously teared up at the end… ▲ My sister started a youtube channel! This month she tries to make 1 video a day, talking about how she deals with life right now (and also about fun stuff, like movies). I think she’s super brave for being so honest (and being on camera!) and I think she deserves some viewers. Go check it out :) (I kind of freaked out one time when I had one of her videos on in the background, because I really thought I heard my own voice, hehe!) ▲ Today I woke up with a horrrrible cold. Does anyone of you have a great tip to get rid of it quickly? ▲ Thanks to Annemerel’s post I rediscovered my old Dido album “Life for Rent”. There’s some serious nostalgia going on when I’m listening to it. I forgot how great it was. ▲

VERONICA MARS. It’s SO GOOD! Granted, with the 3rd season it went a bit downhill, but the first two seasons are great. The first season evolves around the death of Veronica’s best friend Lilly and the second season is about another dramatic turn of events… I’m really jealous if you have those two still left to watch. If you like a little bit of mystery and a kick-ass female lead (Kristen Bell is great as Veronica!) you will definitely like this, trust me!

In this post I shall open up about my embarrassing investment in fictional couples and discuss this concept a bit further, so if:

a) you are a sane person (or)b) you want to be able to still think of ME as a sane person

you should probably skip this post (here are some cute kittens for you to look at). If you’ve decided to read on: welcome. Now, let’s talk.

It all started when a disturbing piece of news reached my delicate ears: one of the male lead-characters in one of my favorite British detectives decided to leave the show and do something less productive with his life (I’ll admit I’m a bit biased, but come on). Yes, I’m talking about Tom Ward a.k.a “heartthrob Harry” Cunningham of the hit-show Silent Witness. For more than ten years he played this character and for five of them, the writers built up a storyline around him and the female-lead Nikki. Of course the show was not about them, but eh, for me it kind of was. And now he is just gone. All this without even shooting a final episode! I’ve already lost my reputation by referencing a Celine Dion song in one of my previous posts, so I’ll just go ahead and say it: I’m sad! FIVE YEARS PEOPLE. And we did not even get a kiss! Sigh.

I realise I’m probably a bit more invested in this fictional relationship than I should. Maybe it means my mother dropped me on the head when I was a baby or that I shouldn’t have been allowed to watch soap operas as a kid. But is it wrong? Fact is, getting invested in fictional relationships is one of my many guilty pleasures. I did it with Ron and Hermione, I cried when Jim & Pam FINALLY got married (Jim looking into the camera just after they got married on the boat – TEARS ALL OVER), I’m still rooting for Chuck and Blair, I pined for Bob and Charlotte and I really wanted Luke and Lorelai to be together. Why do I “invest” in these relationships? Because it is fun! One problem though, is that it’s only fun for as long as it lasts. When an actor decides to leave a show or when a book comes to an end, the stories are gone and you’re the one left with all the feelings you “invested”.

Fortunately for “us people”, there is something like the internet! After finding out about Harry and doing a quick google-session, I came to the conclusion that I’m not the only one with these kind of feelings. If you have a favorite pairing, just try searching them on youtube. Chances are there is a video out there with a compilation of their “best moments”, all accompanied by a very dramatic soundtrack (turns out “Far Away” by Nickelback is a favorite of many and most of Miley Cyrus’ songs are PERFECT for this). Watch and marvel! Apparantly there are even people who decide to write (or rewrite) about their favorite fictional couples themselves. Thousands of stories about this magical world, all written by fans. I’ll admit I once spent a whole afternoon reading a Harry Potter fanfiction about Draco and Hermoine, which was suprisingly good (and perfectly PG13)! Because I should note that I DO draw the line at weird fanfiction or drawings. No disturbing sex scenes s’il vous plaît! If I wanted that I would just buy 30 shades of grey. I’m weird, but not THAT weird. (Yes, that does exist, my innocent grashopper. After all, it’s still the internet. If you want nightmares, take a look at this.) (hey, I warned you)

Oh well. I’ll probably miss my favorite couple when the new season of Silent Witness starts and yes, I’ll be a bit sad and therefore will replay this youtube video a few times, but I’ll be fine. As long as I don’t cry myself to sleep over it every night, I don’t consider it to be an unhealthy thing nor a “wrong investment”. It may suprise you after reading this post, but I am realistic enough to acknowledge my loss and move on ;-) (eventually)

Did your mother drop you as a baby? I.e. do you have a fictional couple in which you “invest”?

It seems like everyone is already talking about it, but just in case you haven’t noticed it yet: autumn is here! The air feels crisper, the light is softer, when you wake up in the morning and your leg is sticking out from under your sheets you have to shrug off the cold and if you’re smart, you finally put those jeanshorts in the back of your closet. Bring out those big sweaters, thights and boots! Autumn is not only about drinking a lot of coffee, cozy afternoons, long walks along paths covered in orange leaves, listening to gloomy music and reading Harry Potter (like Lena wrote, Harry Potter feels like such a “fall-thing”, I agree!). For me, autumn is also all about dusting off my beloved Gilmore Girls dvd-box. Yes, let’s talk about the Gilmore Girls!

Gilmore Girls is about Lorelai and her daughter Rory, living in a small town (Stars Hollow) near Hartford (Connecticut), where it always seems to be fall (although I might be brainwashed by the orange leaves they use as a background starting the titlesong). Lorelai had Rory when she was sixteen and they are not only mother and daughter, but also best friends. Which means they tell each other everything and talk crazy fast (the scripts for the show are rumored to be 75-80 pages, as opposed to 45-50 pages for regular tv-shows). The show is full of pop culture references (music, movies), filled with interesting, sometimes slightly weird characters, oh and Madeleine Albright was in it (!). It was only for a few minutes, but whatever. I LOVE this show. Gilmore Girls started in 2000 and lasted for seven seasons, so if you haven’t started watching yet, you are in for a treat! (Also, I’m kind of jealous of you.)

I have so many random thoughts about this show! If you’re already a big Gilmore Girl’s fan like I am, you can read on. If you still have to watch it, you should probably skip it because of possible spoilers. And if you don’t like Gilmore Girls, then, well, what are you doing reading this post anyway? ;-)(more…)